1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a refrigerator having a shelf mounted at one side of a storage chamber so as to be pulled out.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In general, a refrigerator is an apparatus which stores food in a frozen state or in a refrigerated state by lowering the temperature of a storage chamber by discharging cool air, generated by a refrigerating cycle consisting of a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, and an evaporator.
The refrigerator generally includes a freezing chamber storing food and drinks in a frozen state and a refrigerating chamber storing food and drinks at a low temperature. Further, a Kimchi refrigerator to store food, such as Kimchi, or vegetables in a fresh state is a kind of refrigerator.
At least one of a plurality of doors installed on the refrigerator is connected to one side of a main body of the refrigerator by a hinge and is rotated so as to open and close to a front surface of the main body. In addition to the door rotated by the hinge, a drawer type door mounted on a front surface of a drawer and pulled out and inserted in the forward and backward directions together with the drawer may be used.
In order to accommodate various sizes of food and to increase space utilization, the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber of the refrigerator are provided with a plurality of shelves dividing freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber into upper and lower spaces.
Further, the refrigerating chamber is generally provided with a vegetable room to store vegetables and fruits separately from other spaces of the refrigerator chamber.
The vegetable room is formed as a drawer, and an upper open part of the drawer-type vegetable room is closed by a shelf.
Further, a closed drawer may be provided in the freezing chamber, and a shelf may be provided on the closed drawer so that a storage space within the drawer may be closed by the shelf.
However, as refrigerators recently tend to increase in size, the length of the storage chambers in the forward and backward directions increases. In this case, a user is difficult to take an article out of the rear portion of a shelf.
Particularly, if many articles are accommodated on the shelf, it is more difficult to take an article out of the rear portion of the shelf.
Therefore, a shelf configured so as to be pulled out under the condition that articles are mounted on the shelf has been developed.